European Foundation for Management Development

EFMD – the European Foundation for Management Development – is an international not-for-profit membership organisation, based in Brussels, Belgium. With more than 750 members from academia, business, public service and consultancy across 81 countries, EFMD provides a forum for information-sharing, research, networking and debate on innovation and best practice in management development. The organisation is recognized globally as an accreditation body of quality in management education with established accreditation services for business schools and business school programmes, corporate universities and technology-enhanced learning programmes.

EFMD provides following main types of services to its members:

Quality services: EFMD accreditation involves self-assessment and peer reviews under established quality frameworks that have been designed to deal with the very diverse approaches to management education and development that exist around the world, thus preserving and promoting freedom in strategic choice. EFMD helps its members with continuous quality improvement through the following accreditation schemes:

• EQUIS - the European Quality Improvement System for business schools

• EPAS - the EFMD Programme Accreditation System for business school programmes


• CLIP - the Corporate Learning Improvement Process for corporate universities


• CEL - the EFMD programme accreditation for technology-enhanced learning for both business schools and corporate universities. See also EFMD CEL.

Network services: EFMD facilitates and actively encourages dialogue and partnerships between the various membership groups. EFMD offers a structured access to various communication channels that foster an active engagement and interaction by members on different themes and issues in the field of management development, and also enables bridge-building between business schools and corporations.

Knowledge services: EFMD produces a portfolio of newsletters, research publications, and survey reports th at aim at providing its members with exposure to new learning environments and a better understanding of the latest advances in management development.

Development services:

• Advocacy at European and International level: EFMD acts as a leading advocate and lobbyist for its members and the management education profession via continuous dialogue with leading institutions such as the European Commission, UN Global Compact, UNDP and World Bank / IFC.

• Projects: EFMD partners with members to create international consortia in line with the EFMD mission. EFMD answers call for tenders/call for proposals of international institutions and promotes joint initiatives in higher education, with quality improvement, research and surveys as the main areas of focus.

Global Initiatives

Its website is at: http://www.efmd.org/